By Walubo Jude Tadeo, Uganda (June 2014)- For two years now, the UCE youth conference, in partnership with the Catholic Church, is a special time of fellowship and encouragement to youths from various schools and cities in around Kampala. On May 11th 2014, over 200 youths gathered together to hear a special lineup of speakers point them to the message of chastity through Christ as the focus of their lives and families.
The speakers included among others; His Eminence Cardinal Emanuel Wamala as the Guest Speaker, Walubo Jude (UCE National Director) who gave the UCE message, Francis Nsanga – who showed how important communication is, especially through prayer, and also with parents and peers, and teacher Kitego Grace spoke about life skills. The youth were trained as UCE ambassadors to go forth and share the UCE message, over 200 attended the conference.
In his message, Cardinal Wamala thanked UCE for loving the youths and for sharing with them the lifesaving message of chastity. He said, “Often, life presents questions and challenges for which young people simply may not have answers; this is what draws us to Jesus, the author of lives, and once we believe in him and follow his plan for our lives, we will not get into problems with HIV/AIDS. If any community is to raise young people free of diseases including HIV/AIDS in our world today, it will be the result of one thing—building their relationship with Jesus. Because of this truth, I am happy that the theme of this conference is: chastity through Jesus in every aspect of our daily lives.”
He also added that, “Chastity is the best choice for everyone; be it bishops and clergy like myself, youths, husbands, wives, Catholics, non-Catholics, we all need the UCE message. Those promoting condoms totally got it wrong, besides not being 100 effective in preventing HIV, condom promoters distort the intentionality of a human being from a lover to a luster, and instead of making a weak person stronger, they make you a perfect sinner.”
The Cardinal also called upon the youth to look at love as a call to holiness and purity, which is a call to the perfection of Christ like love. He advised them to avoid all sexual sins. He said that instead of being takers of others, we must follow God’s path, which turns us into unselfish self-givers in the image of Christ. He added that lust causes people to sacrifice others for their own pleasure, instead of sacrificing yourself for the good of others as Jesus did when he died on the cross.
He thanked Universal Chastity Education for being dedicated to the youth and sharing with them the lifesaving message of Abstinence from sex until marriage. “Andrew, the UCE Executive Director, Jude and the entire UCE team are all young people with excellent academic qualifications and perhaps they would have chosen high paying jobs rather than spreading this message. I thank the UCE team for your dedication and I pray for you. We also thank the various people supporting UCE could have put their finances elsewhere where there are monetary gains but they chose to invest in this ministry where the profit is life.”
He ended with a prayer asking God to help the youth and all others to open ourselves up to receive God’s help, so that our hearts and our bodies may be purified by Jesus Christ to love God and love others truly.
Conference review
- Students loved the Cardinal as the Guest Speaker and asked him to come back, a request he accepted.
- Enjoyed prayer sessions and Mass led by the Cardinal
- The question and answer time was very important and students asked many questions by writing on pieces of paper provided by UCE.
- Students enjoyed the Praise and Worship times led by Peter
- Students enjoyed getting copies of the UCE manual
